From the other side of the notebook (09/26/07)

One of the little secrets of journalism is that those of us who report and write for a living aren't really comfortable when we're on the other side of the equation.

We're used to asking the questions. We're used to shaping the story. We're used to selecting which details help illustrate a point and which ones can be set aside.

We're uncomfortable answering questions. We hate to give up any sense of control. We're worried that the reporter will get things wrong.

That's why it's always a good idea to turn the table on us now and then.

I figure everyone in the news business ought to find himself or herself on the other end of an interview every few years. It helps keep you intellectually honest, and it helps eliminate the blind spots.

My most recent turn came last Friday.

A guy from The Kokomo Tribune was in town to do a story on the Jay County years of Elwood Haynes. The 150th anniversary of his birth is coming up in October, and there will be events commemorating the event both here and in Kokomo. The Tribune is putting out a special tabloid supplement next month.

So why is the guy interviewing me? And what could I tell him?

My name was on the short list because - thanks to my mother's adoption at birth by Edward and Carrie (Jay) Haynes - Elwood was my great-uncle. Sure, we were not related by blood. And, of course, he was dead more than two decades before I was born.

But what the heck. The reporter was working with what he had.

As to what I could tell him, well, maybe that was of some help.

Families hold onto things. And, in our case, that means that I still have a folder that represents a remarkable bit of local history.

Elwood Haynes died in the early 1920s, and the Haynes automobile company went under not too many years later. But in the 1930s, he was still something of a legendary figure in Indiana, particularly in Kokomo and in Jay County, where he was born.

On an October night in 1935, my grandfather Haynes delivered a speech in Kokomo, recounting his memories of his favorite older brother, Elwood. It must have been quite a speech, because it received significant coverage in the Kokomo paper. The next night, he delivered the same speech to the Portland Rotary Club. Again, it got good coverage in The Commercial Review.

In the audience that night, a guest at Rotary, was my other grandfather, Hugh N. Ronald Sr. He was pastor of First Presbyterian Church, which the Haynes family attended.

Perhaps showing that journalism is hereditary, Grandfather Ronald took great notes that night. He then dashed off a detailed letter to his sons James, one of my uncles, and Hugh, my father, who were sharing digs at the time.

And, yes, I have the letter.

I also have clippings from the Kokomo newspaper account and The CR's account.

Just to round things out, the file also contains Grandfather Haynes's handwritten notes for the speech.

A few years ago, I put together a program for the Jay County Historical Society, trying to recreate the speech from the notes, the two newspaper accounts, and Grandfather Ronald's letter.

On Friday, perhaps trying to avoid too much Q and A with the reporter, I handed over a copy of my notes for the historical society speech.

He seemed happy to have them, in part because they help humanize Elwood Haynes, someone who can often seem a distant figure. Plus, they made his job much easier.

And as any reporter will tell you, we love it when you make our job easier.

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